Love Journal – As Told By An Emotionally Constipated Half-Genius - Chapter 227

After memorising the map, Edward led the way easily while Jasper gave them directions to steer clear of the ten patrol officers they saw moving around. Their first suspect on the list to clear would be the easiest in Edward’s opinion. The lady guest didn’t seem to have many questions to ask so Scarlet thought that they should save some time and get them out of the way. Edward agreed as well and luckily for them, the guest’s room wasn’t hard to find. The only tricky part was finding the correct key for the doors each time they came across one.

When they finally reached the room of their first suspect, Scarlet decided to exercise some basic courtesy even if this was a game and knocked on the door before announcing their presence in a polite tone.

The guest actor was slightly surprised by how natural that sounded even if it wasn’t in the script.

“Come in,” she told them and Scarlet tried the door. It was unlocked unlike the other dummy doors in the twisting corridor maze. Edward was slowly piecing the information together and wondered if there was a patrol pattern for the ten patrol officers.

“I’ll leave this to you,” he told Scarlet and kissed her on the forehead. “Stay in this room until I come back, I’m going to scout the area.”

Scarlet didn’t know what Edward had in mind but she didn’t ask. Ever since the fight they had, Scarlet did some reflecting. Edward was someone with many secrets but he had never once let her down or do anything that betrayed her trust in him. Hence, this time, she wasn’t going to question him and simply nodded.

Edward left swiftly and Scarlet turned to the first suspect for questioning. The suspect was an aristocratic guest wearing those puffy ball gowns she’s only seen in The Phantom of the Opera. It was a victorian dress that looked very stunning even if it was a stage costume. As an actress who had only acted in China and worn hanfu, Scarlet wanted to try that on but held herself back. The dress was made with stunning red fabric with black lace and looked very elegant on the actress who hid her amus.e.m.e.nt behind a feathered victorian fan.

“Hello,” Scarlet greeted the beautiful lady with brown hair. “Are you Miss Katherine?”

“Indeed I am,” the first suspect who was a guest of the party and the tutor of Mr Roger’s daughter smiled.

Scarlet introduced herself according to the role they were given and the actor was rather impressed that Scarlet was taking the time to make her feel comfortable as if she was an actual person involved with the homicide case as a suspect. Nothing that Scarlet asked thus far was part of the script and the actress wondered if Scarlet knew how the game worked.

“You must have been rather shocked to know that the host of the party had passed away during your stay,” Scarlet started after ensuring that Miss Katherine was calm. She proceeded to ask questions like a professional and got into the mood quickly. “I would like to ask you some questions and I hope that you could cooperate with me as much as you can so that we can get to the bottom of the case. Could you let me know where you were last night from seven to nine in the evening?”

The actress ‘Katherine’ got into the mood and explained that she was mingling with other guests at the party after greeting the host and talking to his daughter Scarlet checked the alibi box and moved to the next question, asking about her relationship with Katherine and the kind of man she knew Mr Roger to be.

“Miss Roger is a lovely pupil and even after I left to pursue my higher education, we often kept in touch through letters. Mr Roger is a nice man and many people might clock him as a little on the dumb side but I knew he loved his daughter very much even if he didn’t have the greatest relationship with his wife.”

Scarlet wrote that down quickly, her curiosity burning. “Could you explain a little more about Mr Roger’s relationship and his wife?”

This wasn’t in the script but Katherine decided to play along and drop a little more hints about the plot of the murder story. She hid behind the fan and lowered her voice as if afraid of others overhearing.

“Mr and Mrs Roger had an arranged marriage as it was normal of aristocratic nobles. They had an alright relationship but Mrs Roger was more interested in pursuing materialistic interests. She is currently expanding her perfumery business abroad and is often away for years at a time. Young Miss Roger grew up without her mother and Mr Roger had grown to be quite the overprotective father.”

Noting these down, Scarlet asked if Katherine knew about the father and daughter’s relationship and the tutor smiled.

“It is as you’ve guessed, inspector. They didn’t share a very amicable relationship. I often exchanged letters with his daughter so I know all about it. She often rants to me about how he was always trying to take away her freedom and little things like that. However, recently, she told me something that made her terribly upset. Mr Roger disapproved of her current lover and was planning to arrange her marriage with the son of a viscount. As you’ve guessed it, this party was held by Mr Roger to introduce his daughter to potential candidates but my word, such a thing happened. I’m still trying to get over the shock myself when I learnt about it and I cannot imagine what young Miss Roger is going through right now learning about the death of her father.”

Seeing as Edward still wasn’t back, Scarlet ended up chatting with Katherine for a lot longer than she expected.

In the meantime, Edward was making his way around and getting Team A to assist him. As he expected, the patrol officers were made to walk only in a certain pattern and Edward decided to unlock all the doors beforehand. Patrol officers couldn’t use those shortcut doors and now that Edward knew the entire layout of the area in fifteen minutes, the game was almost as good as won.

He returned swiftly a whooping ten minutes later and thanked the lady for accompanying his girlfriend. Scarlet thanked Katerine and bade her goodbye before Edward updated her on what he found.

“We’re going to take the shortcut from now on, stay close with me. It took me a while to find all eight doors to unlock them but thanks to that, I know where all the rooms are. Who do we need to see next?”

Scarlet looked at her detective notes and Edward browsed through the point forms briefly. For some reason, he had a feeling Scarlet found out more than what was required. Just by putting all the information that Scarlet got from their first suspect, Edward already knew who the true murderer could be. He just needed to find more points and conclusive evidence but Scarlet should have no difficulty deriving at the same conclusion.

“I think we should talk to the daughter next. I’ve got some rather interesting information from the guest who was the daughter’s tutor. Would you like to hear it?”

Although Edward already knew the gist of it from the peek at Scarlet’s notes, he nodded. He liked hearing her babble and wished that they could take their time but the moment was cut short when the walkie talkie crackled to life.

“Patrol officer passing by, stop flirting so much and complete the mission quickly. It’s cold and we’re bored!”

Scarlet blushed when she heard her sister complain and immediately shut up. Edward grabbed the walkie talkie and shot back, “Says the ones actually having the luxury to snuggle up against each other with handcuffs in an isolated room without needing to do much work.”

Jasper was slightly startled. How did Edward know? They’d taken to just snuggling underneath the prop blanket on the mattress that Alex moved in. The chairs were pushed aside and they were simply watching the screens to tell Edward when they saw a patrol guard approaching.

Alex snickered. “Jealous?” she quipped and Scarlet’s face exploded.

Edward simply turned around to the nearest camera he saw and made a face before pulling Scarlet in for a kiss to flaunt his love to the couple watching them. His actions made Nook feel green with envy and disgust. How dare this couple flaunt their love in front of a single man like him? This escape game shouldn’t be an amus.e.m.e.nt park, why did neither of the couples struggle more? Also, the actress was a little too easily defeated. He didn’t know what they were talking about but if they solved the first stage in ten minutes again, he was going to quit.

Once the parol guards left, Edward quickly pulled a stunned Scarlet along to the next door that he already unlocked. Scarlet decided to use the same approach and knock on the door before entering. Edward couldn’t help but be amused by how into the game Scarlet was. If Scarlet wasn’t a writer or an actress, she would make a cute assistant detective when he set up his private agency.